Paul Moore discusses one of the biggest factors in football, and it is one upon which no price tag can be placed. If it was, you can bet Chelsea’s Roman Abramovich would try to buy it!
Everybody needs it in life and of course it’s needed in football; both as a player and as a coach. If you don’t have a lot of it you have to work that much harder.
The word I’m talking about is luck; it can be good but on the other hand it can be bad. Some coaches are very lucky indeed while others will tell you the chances and decisions even themselves out.
Wherever you look, luck plays its part; one assistant referee might flag for an offside while another will give the benefit of doubt to the striker and he’ll go on and score. Is the striker lucky or is the defender unlucky?
Luck is a double edged sword that can be good one minute and bad the next no matter how skilful you are.
Some players can go through their whole career and hardly have any injuries at all while for others it’s a constant battle.
The player that springs to mind to me is Kieron Dyer; most players would have given up playing but he keeps going! QPR signed him after he spent four years at West Ham where he made a total of thirty appearances and fourteen of them were from the subs bench.
That’s less than ten games a season because of injury – Is it simply bad luck? He made his debut for QPR and after four minutes he broke a bone in his foot which kept him out all season; again bad luck?
Strikers need luck in front of goal; they need the skill to be in the right place but what if it’s a deflection? Luck if it reaches them and unlucky if it doesn’t?
A defender blocks a shot and the ricochet goes behind for a corner; just five minutes later the same thing happens only the ricochet goes in the top corner with the goalkeeper beaten. Bad defending or bad luck?
Football coaches and managers need a fair share of luck as well. The Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho has admitted he is one of the luckiest coaches in the world; but I’d say Sir Alex Ferguson can’t be far behind him. Is he lucky that the referee is always adding on time so his team can score?
The owners of football clubs are also down to luck; Roman Abramovich was looking at buying Tottenham before buying Chelsea. Tony Fernandes wanted West Ham before buying QPR. So is that luck or good business?
After what’s happened to Portsmouth and Glasgow Rangers many will say it’s bad business but if either had won a little more then they may have been luckier?
To win the FA Cup everyone wants a home tie and avoid the ‘big guns’; there is no denying that you need luck in the draw.
In the game of football you of course need skill and hard work but without a bit of good luck you might as well try and go to outer space climbing a step ladder.
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